Non-Gaussian Analysis of Observations from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder

NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) has been providing high quality, low noise top-of-the-atmosphere radiance observations since September 2002. The high spectral resolution channels of the instrument makes it possible to select channels that are sensitive to at most one atmospheric constituent (such as only upper tropsophere water vapor, or only ozone). By studying the higher order moments of probability density functions (PDFs) for a subset of six carefully selected channels, we present evidence of correlated additive and multiplicative (CAM) stochastic forcing observed under clear and under allsky conditions. Comparisons are made to clear and allsky radiances computed using ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA) and the Modern Era Retrospective Analysis (MERRA) model fields.